Burberry goes live online

Monday, February 23, 2015 - 02:04

Luxury British fashion house Burberry see customer interactivity as the future for the business. Grace Pascoe reports.

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Britain's Burberry brings London Fashion Week even closer to home.
For the first time its catwalk show has been broadcast live to the world via the internet.
CEO Christopher Bailey wants Burberry's global customers to develop a personal relationship with the luxury brand...
(SOUNDBITE) (English) BURBERRY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CHRISTOPHER BAILEY, SAYING:
"The shows are about articulating what we are doing, whether that be the fashion or the architecture or the music and there are people out there that want to be a part of this world and it is very important that we make sure that we are working on the platforms that people want to see you or hear you on."
Research group Mintel expects online fashion sales in the UK alone to reach 19 billion pounds in the next four years.
So it's no surprise Burberry teamed up with Twitter and LINE to give social media users unique creative content and personalised catwalk tweets.
Connoisseurs were able to buy items from the new runway collection just minutes after the show.
The British Fashion Council sees e-commerce and online activity as key to success.
It's CEO Caroline Rush...
(SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO OF THE BRITISH FASHION COUNCIL, CAROLINE RUSH, SAYING:
"Events like London Fashion Week are incredibly influential in London maintaining its reputation as a global fashion hub. So the stronger the fashion week, the stronger the design and the images and the reputation that comes out of Britain the more important it is for those global brands to have a presence here."
Burberry certainly seems to be pushing the right buttons - retail sales were up 14% in the third quarter.
And they have plenty of high profile friends.
Burberry's guests included supermodels Cara Delevigne and Jourdan Dunne as well as singers Paloma Faith and Sam Smith, all of whom are strong social media advocates.
And that's not all - the new Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis seems to be a fan or their scarves and they can even boost links to the Oscars.
New Best actor Eddie Redmayne was once a Burberry model.

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